Live data from Hacker News

Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

nytimes.com

61–70 of 102 posts

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#61

> People who purchase the CVL token, a form of cryptocurrency, will have a say concerning the projects hosted by Civil — meaning that they can vote on whether one of its websites violates the company’s journalism standards, which are outlined in the Civil Constitution This features the worst elements of public ( e.g. the BBC ), private ( e.g. the Wall Street Journal ) and patronage ( e.g. the Washington Post ) media.…

> Letting token owners “vote on whether...websites violate the company’s journalism standards” explicitly removes editorial independence. A better alternative would be to let token owners vote on what story to research next.

Do you have any evidence that editorial independence even exists in the face of a complete capital controlled environment?

Sinclair made a blunder and showed the world that there was no independence, at least in their company. It was even set on a local level. It sets a very plausible model for other large media/news companies.

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#62
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think it already isn't purchased and hasn't been for a very long time? There are only a handful of media companies, at least in the USA.

It's obvious when the Washington Post writes articles about Amazon that there's a conflict of interest. They definitely write them, but I don't remember anyone sharing any stories from them about e.g. the HQ2 process. People know to look elsewhere. And conversely, the moment the Post publishes a news (not opinion) article about how every city should want to be HQ2, or worse, mentions it off-hand in an article about s…

How many people are actually informed that the Washington Post is owned by Jeff Bezos? How many people know that Jeff Bezos has contracts with the CIA[1] & sits on a pentagon board[2]? I doubt many. It's one of the few "left" wing newspapers I refuse to read for the reasons above.

I'm not arguing for this blockchain solution, I think it makes things worse exactly as you said.

[1]https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/07/the-d...

[2] http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos-joins-p...

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#63
post #24
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, how would you incentivise journalism? I can’t tell where articles i might want to read come from; i know that any given newspaper will have plenty of content that i find head scratching—that’s your editorial independence for you. There’s no good model right now to patronize journalists or topics.

You can buy an online subscription.

That doesn't scale particularly well. It's fine if you like one or two media sources, but there are thousands of them, and many are high in terms of quality. Having people buy subscriptions for all the media they like would be financially untenable, and probably hurt many of the less popular ones even more.

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#64
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they shouldn't. News should not be determined by its shareholders. The idea that such privileges should be able to be purchased is so incomprehensibly stupid, I'm at a loss for words.

You don't think it already isn't purchased and hasn't been for a very long time? There are only a handful of media companies, at least in the USA.

The fact that something is already bad isn't a great argument for making it worse, though!

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#65
post #36

I propose a new rule of the internet, much like the rule of "if you can think of it, there's porn for it." If you can think of it, there's a alt coin for it. It's genuinely difficult. One friend suggested "a coin for space travel". Nope. Mars coin is a thing. What about a coin for students? Nope. A coin for Kanye West. Nope. A coin for porn? Nope, of course that already exists. There's even a coin for keeping track o…

How about a coin for pedophiles? I know it’s extreme but it’s the only group in society that’s vilified even by health professionals so they’re really hidden.

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Journalists don't seem to need any help in damaging their reputation and the public's trust in them. These alternative distribution schemes seem to be a response to the bias and selective reporting done over the last two years.

OP didn't say anything about journalists' reputations and the public trust in them. He said something about journalistic independence . For example, Seymour Hersh clearly possessed journalistic independence in his story on the SEAL team assassination of bin Laden. However, at least initially, public response to his story was lukewarm and the Obama administration in particular and the press broadly spent a lot of time…

I would pick a different hill to die on than Seymour Hersh's story about the killing of bin Ladin, there is as far as I can tell one unnamed primary source for Hersh's reporting versus the official story - almost everyone that is not in US intelligence went on the record and all those people and the US intelligence sources would have to be in on one big conspiracy.

Big conspiracies require more proof. This is not Watergate level where there was corroborating evidence behind the FBI assistant director's reveal to the Washington Post.

Seymour Hersh thinks US special forces members are like the bad guys from that Da Vinci Code book and are actually working for Opus Dei, and this why they would be so good at keeping the Hersh conspiracy hidden. Hersh did good with My Lai but that doesn't mean he can coast on his laurels forever.

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#67
post #36

I propose a new rule of the internet, much like the rule of "if you can think of it, there's porn for it." If you can think of it, there's a alt coin for it. It's genuinely difficult. One friend suggested "a coin for space travel". Nope. Mars coin is a thing. What about a coin for students? Nope. A coin for Kanye West. Nope. A coin for porn? Nope, of course that already exists. There's even a coin for keeping track o…

How about a coin for pedophiles? I know it’s extreme but it’s the only group in society that’s vilified even by health professionals so they’re really hidden.

that would be bitcoin

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#68
post #63
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can buy an online subscription.

That doesn't scale particularly well. It's fine if you like one or two media sources, but there are thousands of them, and many are high in terms of quality. Having people buy subscriptions for all the media they like would be financially untenable, and probably hurt many of the less popular ones even more.

> but there are thousands of them

There are thousands of restaurants in New York. That doesn’t mean I don’t eat out.

The people who I know who subscribe to news subscribe to multiple publications. The set of people who (a) want limited access to lots of publications and (b) would pay for them is limited.

Re: Goodbye, Denver Post. Hello, Blockchain

#69

Like in most cases a blockchain is useless here. Why not just used a centralized system? Nothing is gained from decentralization since the organization has to be trusted to recognize the voting power of the tokens either way. Totally pointless.

'investment' from a company (consensys) with an enormous stake in promoting blockchainism to a mainstream audience is a pretty tangible gain.
Post reply on HN